The pleasant historie of the conquest of the VVeast India, now called new Spayne: atchieued by the vvorthy Prince Hernando Cortes, marques of the Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to readeLópez de Gómara, Francisco
History
The pleasant historie of the conquest of the VVeast India, now called new Spayne: atchieued by the vvorthy Prince Hernando Cortes, marques of the Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to reade
López de Gómara, Francisco
Cortés, Hernán, 1485-1547; Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540; Nahuatl language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
made suche way among the _Indians_, that the Horsemen hadde reasonable
passage, and béeyng y^e hindmost man himselfe, he was in great peril of
taking. It was a maruell to sée what a spring hee gaue with hys Horse,
and thereby escaped, but in conclusion, with stones they were forced to
returne to their hold, beyng very late.
As soone as he had ended his supper, he sente some of his men to gard
the stréete and bridges, and to defend the same againste the enemie.
They were somewhat ioyfull of their procéedings and good successe
whiche they hadde the same day.
Hovve Cortez fledde from
_Mexico_.
But _Cortes_ waying the substance of the matter, sawe in effecte that
his syde wente to wracke, wherefore he requested hys menne to departe
from thence, who were not a little ioyfull to heare their Captayne
pronounce that saying, for few or none of them escaped vnhurt and
wounded. They feared death, but yet wanted not stomacke and hearte to
dye. The _Indians_ were so many, that if the Chrystians shoulde but
onlye haue cutte their throtes without resistance, yet they had bin too
few for that purpose.
They were also in suche necessitie of bread, that pinched them sore.
Their pouder and shotte was spente, and almost all other prouision.
Their house was welnigh beaten downe about their eares. All these
causes were sufficient to leaue _Mexico_, and to séeke to saue their
liues: yet on the other side, they iudged it an euill case, to turne
their backes to their enimies, for (quoth they) the very stones riseth
vp against hym that flyeth. They feared agayne the passage of the
arches where the bridges hadde bin, so that now they were full besette
with sorrow, care, and misery: but in fyne, they all agréed to departe
that nighte, for many dayes before, one of their companye called
_Botello_, who presumed to haue good skyll in the Arte of Nigromäcie,
did declare vnto them, that if they would depart from _Mexico_ at a
certayne houre appoynted, that then they shuld escape, or else not: but
whether they gaue credite to his sayings or no, they fully determined
to departe that night, and like vnto politike and good Souldyers,
they prepared a bridge of tymber to carrie wyth them, to passe ouer
the arches where bridges hadde bin. This is most certayne, they were
all priuie and agréede to the departure, and not as some report, that
_Cortes_ fledde away, leauing aboue two hundred Spanyardes in the
house, who knewe nothyng of hys departure, and were afterwardes all
slayne, sacrifised, and eaten in _Mexico_, for out of the Citie he
coulde not haue departed so secretely, but it shoulde haue come to
their eares: howe muche more out of one house, where they were all
togither.
[Sidenote: Revvarde of a couetous mind.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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